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Prompt 11 (Burning Bright): This time of year there are candles popping up in just about every shop selling anything. Maybe you stopped by one of these shops yourself, or maybe a friend wanted to get you a thoughtful gift, but somehow you’ve come into possession of a pair of candles. They don’t seem to be anything spectacular upon first glance; they are pretty and well made and have a pleasant fragrance. They would be pretty decor on their own, but once you light them, they really shine. Nonstop. For twenty four hours. No matter what you do, you cannot put the flame out. No wind, no water, no fire extinguisher–nothing–will extinguish the flame. You just have to wait until it burns itself out. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem very flammable so you don’t have to worry about other things catching on fire in the meantime. Wherever you keep the candle will have a pleasant smell for several days after the flame extinguishes.
The candles that John had received from work had been unexpected but appreciated. After all, they didn’t have much in the budget to be able to give gifts to their workers for the season, so when they received a box of candles they had let everyone take at least two of them, and John had made sure to take a couple of them for himself. They smelled nice and he was sure that they would create some warm ambience within his house during the holiday season.
It was an unusually hard winter for him. That was more to do with what was going on with him than what was happening in the city, though all of the magical shenanigans didn’t help. Snow bunnies here and there, sticky snow - that one had not been fun to fall into, trees that seemed to be turning into ice, nothing that couldn’t be handled, but definitely some things that had made getting around the city and patrolling a bit more difficult. And that wasn’t including running into any Agents!
They had seemed strangely absent this winter, though he was unsure if that was because of a lull in activity on their part or he just had the luck of not running into them. Whatever it was, he was grateful that he didn’t have to take a trip to the hospital. Yet. The New Year was coming after all and one could easily slip and hurt themselves just on the ice.
So he had hoped that he would be able to relax a bit with the candles and when they were lit they were quite pleasant. He had gotten various tasks that needed to be done around his house and had wanted to end the night reading. When that was done and he was ready to go to bed, he attempted to put the flame out but it seemed quite impossible. Even putting water on them didn’t seem to do anything. He wasn’t worried about them burning down the house, but he was quite confused and a bit disappointed. While the candles were nice, he had hoped that he would be able to keep them for longer and re-light them until they finally ran out. With them being unable to be extinguished, it seemed that they wouldn’t last as long as he wanted.
This was proven true as when 24 hours had passed the candles were finally extinguished when a day had passed. Still, the fragrance of the candles lasted a few days and they helped John to relax a bit when he was in the house and feeling a bit moody about the holiday. That usually happened every winter, especially when there were quite a few days of gray skies. He liked seeing the light of the moon and the sun. Something that he couldn’t see on his Wonder.
When the fragrances finally dissipated from his home, he decided that he would go out and buy some regular candles, wanting to have something to give him something to uplift his winter mood and at least give the house some pleasant smells. It did help to get new smells every once in a while just in case he had missed something important in the home that he had become nose-blind to!
